The 20-year-old Queenslander, Australia’s top amateur at No.88 in the world, produced a brilliant late birdie burst in his second round at the Emirates Golf Club in Dubai on Friday to reach halfway in the 16th edition of the prestigious championship as joint-leader.<\/p>\n
It’s exactly where the young prospect wants to be as he looks to win the title that would earn him a place in both the 2026 Masters and next year’s British Open at Royal Birkdale. \u00a0<\/p>\n
“I mean, there’s no better group to play in than the last one,” smiled Takis, who’ll be joined by his co-leaders, Japan’s Rintaro Nakano and teenager Khanh Hung Le, of Vietnam, with all three on 11 under.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I can’t be disappointed in that.<\/p>\n
“That’s what we play for. We’ve got a massive opportunity and a great city, great part of the world. It’s golf, so I’m always going to try and enjoy it out there. I think that’s when I play my best.”<\/p>\n
The enjoyment was obvious as Brisbane’s Takis recorded five birdies over his final nine-hole stretch, including four in five holes between 13 and 17, to add a second-round, six-under 66 to his opening 67.<\/p>\n
His grand finale featured him chipping in for birdie on the 14th, as well as a spectacular birdie three at the 359-yard 17th when he drove the green.<\/p>\n
He had taken a frustrating five at the same hole on Thursday. “I drove it just left of the green yesterday, thought it was going to be really good and it was not in a great spot at all,” he noted.<\/p>\n
“I kind of wanted my revenge on that hole a little bit.”<\/p>\n
Takis plays for the ‘Aztecs’ at San Diego State University, where he’s following some distinguished alumni, including major champions Xander Schauffele and JJ Spaun, and he won’t be fazed by being in the last group if his 11-shot triumph at the Singapore Open Amateur Championship in July is anything to go by.<\/p>\n
He’s taken over as Australia’s top hope from fellow Queenslander Billy Dowling, the overnight co-leader who followed his opening 66 with a level-par 72 that featured a host of agonising near-misses with the putter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I thought maybe a couple might’ve dropped, but that’s okay,” said Dowling, who’s now five shots behind in a tie for seventh.<\/p>\n
“I’m still in contention. I’m hitting the ball well. I just know it’s a matter of a few putts going in and I can really make a score out of it.”<\/p>\n
The story of the championships so far has been the rise of 17-year-old Le, who has recorded 66 and 67 so far, and would be the first Vietnamese ever to play at the Masters and the British Open should he win.<\/p>\n
Six of the seven Australians in action made the six-over par cut, including Sydney’s Kayun Mudadana, who’s one-under in a tie for 19th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 20-year-old Queenslander, Australia’s top amateur at No.88 in the world, produced a brilliant late birdie burst in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-238245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}